Author: Khondkarian Raffi

"HANRAPETOUTIUN" PARTY REMINDS ABOUT NECESSITY OF ARMY’S BEING
APOLITICAL

YEREVAN, JANUARY 29, NOYAN TAPAN. On the occasion of the 15th
anniversary of the Armenian Army, the "Hanrapetutiun" (Republic)
party’s Political Council mentions that "the RA Armed Forces became one
of the important symbols of the independence of Armenia, our people’s
freedom, embodying the real Fatherland." The "Hanrapetoutiun" party is
faithful to the soul of the RA Constitution and sparapet Vazgen
Sargsian’s precept, emphasizing the necessity of the army’s being
apolitical and non-partisan. The RA state elections are ahead, and on
this occasion we address to all the RA Armed Forces officers not to
make the high honour of the shoulder straps serve partial political
interests of some people suffering from aspiration for power.
Authorities and political situations are changeable, our state and army
are constant," is said in the address of the "Hanrapetoutiun" party’s
Political Council.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Jan 29 2007

ARMENIANS INSULTED ENGLISH HISTORIAN AT THE INT’L CONFERENCE
[January 29, 2007, 18:44:16]

English scientist Norman Stone, reporting at the conference on the
topic `Armenian terrorism and remembering the Turkish diplomats’
organized by the Turkish Circles Federation, has undergone insulting
by the Armenian who attempted to hamper his report. As a result, the
evoked confrontation between the Armenians and Turks was solved by
force. The reason of dissatisfaction of Armenians was the statement
of Norman Stone that the events during the WW I, cannot be recognized
as `genocide’. Mr. Stone noted that the representatives of Armenian
Diaspora, who knows neither the Armenian language, nor their history,
lead the Armenian people to abyss.

Armenia simply has to improve its relations with Turkey otherwise it
has no future.

Appearing at the conference, professor of Edinburgh University, the
Azerbaijan scientist Gulamrza Sabri Tebrizi addressed Turkey to
render greater assistance to the fraternal Azerbaijan in the cause of
liberation of the lands occupied by Armenians.

U.S. Got More Opportunity To Influence On Situation In Turkey

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.01.2007 17:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Currently a strained situation has formed in Turkey:
the relation between Islamists and "Kemalists has worsened. The
first side represents the ruling "Justice and Development party
with a number of political and religion organizations, which cast
doubt on such a secular model of state created by Kemal Ataturk. The
other side consists of Kemalists, which is being supported by large
political parties and higher and medium bureaucracy that defend
secular state," said specialist in Turkic philology Ruben Safrastyan,
the head of Oriental Studies Institute of the RA NAS (National Academy
of Sciences), during an interview to the PanARMENIAN.Net journalist. In
his words, lately a linkage is being noticed between Kemalist circles
and higher army commanders, which considers itself as a guaranty for
secular state. "On this background actively is being discussed army’s
possibility to categorically interfere the political processes aiming
at preventing the further erosion of secular state model. I think in
the current situation US’s opportunities to have influence on events
in Turkey increases, since they traditionally enjoy great authority
in the army," Safrastyan underscored.

ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA: HRANT DINK WILL ALWAYS BE REMEMBERED
AS LEADER DEDICATED TO HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENCE

WASHINGTON, JANUARY 22, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The Armenian
Assembly of America expresses its deep sorrow on the tragic
assassination of Hrant Dink – one of the most progessive Armenian
voices in Turkey, who was killed in broad daylight for his public
statements and tireless political activeness. This is said in the
statement issued by the Armenian Assembly of America (AAA). The AAA
condemns this "entirely political" murder and grieves the loss of
this unique man and political rights champion, who was well aware of
the risk he was taking but who was resolute to act as a stimulus for
mutual consent, tolerance and dialog. "Hrant Dink was consistently
fighting for democratic changes in Turkey. He will always be remembered
as a leader dedicated to human rights defence," the statement reads.

After Dink’s murder, let’s not join its accomplices

New Anatolian, Turkey
Jan 22 2007

Cem Sey

22 January 2007

I cannot call Hrant Dink a friend. I met him just once. But this was
enough for me to recognize how powerful his message was, how sincere
he was.

I was supposed to interview him in Berlin for the German daily Die
Tageszeitung. We sat in a room to the rear of the newspaper morgue.
It was a long conversation filled with emotion.

I asked him why he wouldn’t use the word "genocide." "History
requires an ethical approach," he answered. "Legal concepts which
have a certain international meaning are preventing us from learning
what happened back then."

He was hopeful. He explained that the Turkish stance in the Armenian
question was shifting from denial to acknowledgement. "You can’t
expect deep-rooted denial to change instantly to acknowledge," he
said. "There will be one more stop on the way."

In the two years since I did that interview we saw a backlash in this
issue in Turkey in form of indictments and even — in his own case —
with an embarrassing conviction.

What happened?

In a press release condemning Dink’s murder, the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA) calls it "tragic proof that the Turkish
government — through its campaign of denial, threats and intimidation
against the recognition of the Armenian genocide — continues to
fuel the same hatred and intolerance that initially led to this crime
against humanity more than 90 years ago."

Indeed, the murder of this brave journalist makes it obvious that the
form of engaging supporters of recognition of the genocide in Turkey
has opened the door for aggressive assaults and ultimately led to
Dink’s murder. Everybody in Turkey — even those who don’t believe
in the genocide — knows that without the reinvigorated aggressive
social psychology in Turkey, Hrant Dink would still be with us.

The people of Turkey and above all its officials — and I don’t just
mean the government — should now think seriously about changing
their attitude for the sake of the still-fragile democracy in the
country. Everybody has to be ready to go all the way through the
investigations until the last unknown aspect in this case is made
clear, even if it ends with accusations against "sacred" institutions
like the army or other representatives of the state. Turkey shouldn’t
stop investigations, debates or trials against superior officials,
like what happened in the November 2005 Semdinli case, if this
becomes necessary.

But Dink’s death brings a huge responsibility to the Europeans as well,
who, I am afraid, aren’t really aware of this.

In 2005 Dink said in his interview with me that the German
conservatives would misuse this issue to try to block Turkey’s
European Union accession. "As an Armenian I can’t accept this," he
said. "Today I am suffering greatly because the catastrophe of 1915
is being turned into a political triumph."

Two years later his own tragedy may be misused for the same purpose,
if politicians, journalists, and lobbying groups throughout Europe
take advantage of this murder and make it into an argument against
Turkey’s EU bid.

This should be clear to anybody: Even after his death, one can still
become an accomplice to his murderers — in Turkey and elsewhere.

Hrant Dink believed in the power of the emerging democratic movement
in Turkey. And he always saw Turkey’s EU accession process as a strong
supportive element for this movement, but knew this process was just
the result of this movement, not its trigger.

Turkey’s path to modernity up until today has been strewn with blood,
massacres and murder. There is no hope that this will be different
in the future. Even though the country has written a success story
in its addiction to modernity.

Turkey’s next step on this path will be membership in the European
Union. Enemies of this can make the way painful and delay its
success. But they won’t be able to stop it.

Hrant Dink was the first victim, one who paid for his clear views on
the path to the European Union.

KARS-AKHALKALAKI-TBILISI-BAKU RAIL PROJECT SOON TO ROLL FORWARD
by Vladimir Socor

Eurasia Daily Monitor — The Jamestown Foundation
January 19, 2007 — Volume 4, Issue 14

Thanks in large measure to Azerbaijan’s rapidly growing economic
strength, the Kars (Turkey)-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku (KATB)
railroad-building project can soon become a reality. The project
had stalled for more than a decade, due to a lack of funding for the
Georgian stretch of the line. Now Azerbaijan is able to finance that
part of the project.

On January 13 in Tbilisi, Georgian Economic Development Minister
Giorgi Arveladze and Azerbaijan’s Transport Minister Zia Mamedov
signed the relevant credit agreement on highly preferential terms.
Azerbaijan is providing a $220 million loan, repayable in 25 years,
with an annual interest rate of only 1%. This agreement’s parliamentary
ratification will be followed by an inter-bank agreement between the
two countries and then a tender to select the construction companies.

The line’s overall length is 258 kilometers, of which the Georgian
section is the most challenging. There, 30 kilometers from the
Turkish border to Akhalkalaki must be built from scratch and another
120 kilometers of existing tracks need full rehabilitation. Turkey
will build a 68-kilometer line from Kars to the Georgian border from
scratch, at a cost of more than $200 million. KATB’s overall cost
is estimated at up to $600 million. Construction work in Georgia
is expected to start in the third quarter of 2007 and to require
two-and-a-half years. The railroad’s anticipated capacity is 5 million
tons per year initially, 10 to 15 million tons annually after the
third year of operation, and ultimately up to 20 million tons annually.

KATB has been conceived as a linchpin in the projected trans-Eurasian
railroad that would connect the European railroad network, via Turkey
and Georgia, to the Caspian Sea at Baku, continuing with ferryboat
lines to the eastern Caspian shore. There, the KATB line can connect
in the future with the proposed China-Kazakhstan-Europe railroad.

The KATB itself with a trans-Caspian connection will be the first major
project that implements the European Union’s vision of a Transport
Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Central Asia (TRACECA), popularly known as
the "new Silk Road" from Europe to China. The EU had launched TRACECA
in the South Caucasus in the mid-1990s amid great expectations,
but practically abandoned it afterward. The EU is not investing in
KATB, although it is aware of its potential benefits, according to a
statement issued by the German embassy in Baku on behalf of the EU’s
German presidency (Az.day, January 17).

Absent EU involvement, the United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe (UNECE) had considered supporting the KATB project in the 1990s,
but eventually opted out as well. The real impetus came in May 2005
when Presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, Mikheil Saakashvili of
Georgia, and Ahmed Necdet Sezer of Turkey signed a declaration of
intent to build the KATB railroad.

The United States is officially taking a bystander’s attitude toward
this project, "neither opposing it nor actively promoting it." In
the latter part of 2006, Armenian lobbying organizations succeeded in
amending the U.S. Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act to prohibit
Eximbank funding to the KATB project, on the grounds that it "isolates"
Armenia. In Moscow, empire-rebuilding advocate Andranik Migranian
applauded the Congressional vote: "This is a well-thought-out step on
the part of the American authorities" (Rustavi-2 Television, December
8, 2006). President George W. Bush signed the Act into law in December
2006 after both chambers of Congress had passed it in that form.

Yerevan and its supporters call for reopening and overhauling the
existing railroad from Kars to Gyumri in Armenia and using it instead
of KATB. Turkey had closed the Kars-Gyumri line and the border in
response to Armenia’s seizure of territories in Azerbaijan in 1994.
The United States and the EU are urging Turkey to reopen the border
with Armenia, including the Kars-Gyumri railroad, as part of efforts
to promote a settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.

Irrespective of this political context, however, Kars-Gyumri is
essentially a local line, in no sense a substitute for the KATB project
of transcontinental relevance. From the standpoint of Turkey, Georgia,
and Azerbaijan, KATB provides their most direct as well as politically
safest link to the EU on one side and to Central Asia on the other, as
well as an inter-connector among the three Western-oriented countries.

KATB has special significance to Georgia. The railroad can bring
economic development to the deeply impoverished, Armenian-inhabited
part of the Javakheti region and ensure political stability there. It
will also provide Georgia with a reliable outlet to the outside
world, following Russia’s decision in 2006 to shut off transport
communications with Georgia.

With U.S. leadership faltering on this issue and EU leadership absent,
Azerbaijan is now demonstrating that it can take the initiative in
making the KATB railroad possible.

(Turan, Day.Az, Messenger, Civil Georgia, Turkish Daily News,
PanArmeniaNet, January 14-18; see EDM, November 9, 2006)

–Vladimir Socor

PanARMENIAN.Net

Memorial Service for Hrant Dink To Be Held in Armenian
Churches of The Netherlands January 21
20.01.2007 17:00 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On Sunday, 21 January 2007 all Armenian churches of
the Netherlands will hold a memorial service for the Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink. The PanARMENIAN.Net journalist was told in FAON
(the Federation of Armenian Organizations in the Netherlands) that
memorial services will be held in Amsterdam and Almelo.

By order of the Pontiff of All Armenians, January 21, a special Repose
of Souls service will be offered in all Armenian Church dioceses
throughout the world for Hrant Dink, the editor of bilingual
Armenian-Turkish `Agos’ weekly.

Tehran Times, Iran
Jan 20 2007

Turkish Armenian writer shot dead

ANKARA (BBC) — A well-known Turkish Armenian editor convicted of
insulting Turkish identity has been shot dead in Istanbul.

Hrant Dink, editor of newspaper Agos, was shot three times by an
unknown gunman outside his offices.

Dink was given a six-month suspended sentence in October 2005 after
writing about the Armenian "genocide" of 1915.

Turkey’s NTV television said police were searching for a teenager
wearing a white hat and a denim jacket in connection with the murder.

The channel showed pictures of a white sheet covering the
journalist’s body in front of the newspaper building’s entrance.

Dink, 53, had received threats from nationalists who viewed him as a
traitor, the Associated Press news agency reported.

He was one of Turkey’s most prominent Armenian voices.

He once gave an interview with the Associated Press in which he cried
while describing the hatred some Turks had for him, saying he could
not stay in a country where he was unwanted.

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in 1915, in what many
Armenians say was a systematic massacre at the hands of the Ottoman
Turks.

Turkey denies any genocide, saying the deaths were a part of World
War I.

Turkey and neighboring Armenia still have no official relations.

BBC New, UK
Jan 20 2007

Turkish press outrage over shooting

Mr Dink said he had received numerous death threats
Turkish newspapers express deep shock and anger at the murder in
Istanbul of one of the country’s most prominent Armenian voices, the
journalist Hrant Dink.

Several commentators predict the killing could spark a political
crisis; many also express concern about its potential international
repercussions.

HEADLINES IN MILLIYET

Hrant Dink Murdered: The Murderer Is a Traitor … It Was Turkey That
Was Shot Dead.

HEADLINE ON COLUMN BY HADI ULUENGIN IN HURRIYET

Ahparik, Ahparik! [Armenian for "brother"]

CAN DUNAR IN MILLIYET

Tsidesutyun Paregamis! [Farewell My Friend!] … You at least
achieved in death what you were striving for in life. Look, last
night all walked in front of the paper chanting ‘we all are Hrant, we
all are Armenians,’ something you spent a lifetime to see.

GUNGOR URAS IN MILLIYET

[Dink’s] murder will make the solution of the Turkish-Armenian
problem more intractable both at home and abroad. Our laws and
justice system have cornered one of our Armenian citizens who could
have contributed to the solution of the Armenian problem. He was
murdered by dark forces.

ILNUR CEVIK IN THE NEW ANATOLIAN

For some time we were hearing gossip that some people who have
angered the ultra-conservatives may be the targets of a new campaign
of violence. We were told that, unlike in the past, the death squads
are acting independently and are not linked or controlled by state
bodies. We hope the security forces and intelligence network does a
swift job to catch the culprit or culprits who are trying to push
Turkey into a spiral of violence. If this is done, the credibility of
the government and the image of Turkey can be saved.

YUSUF KANLI IN TURKISH DAILY NEWS

Whatever the motive behind the attack was and whoever the killer is,
Turkey and Armenia have both lost a very important son today, someone
who was trying to contribute to building bridges of peace and
understanding between his homeland Turkey and Armenia.

SAHIN ALPAY IN ZAMAN

[Dink’s murder was] a major blow to Turkey, Turkishness and humanity
… No greater insult could have been made against Turkey and the
Turkish identity. No greater blow could have been dealt to Turkish
democracy and Turkey’s international prestige. This murder, which was
committed by the true enemies of Turkishness, will unfortunately cost
Turkey very dearly.

NUH GONULTAS IN BUGUN

A section in Turkey that has run of out ammunition ahead of the
presidential election has taken steps to plunge Turkey into a crisis.

TAHA AKYOL IN MILLIYET

[Dink’s murder was] barbaric, cruel, and monstrous; politically an
act of lumpen nationalistic hatred.

MEHMET ALI BIRAND IN TURKISH DAILY NEWS

Hrant Dink symbolised tolerance. Those who shot at him have no idea
that they also shot at Turkey. Just wait and see how this will
resonate outside. The United States, France and other European
countries will send proposals on the Armenians’ genocide and will
just rush them through. Turkey will be blamed for everything.
Newspapers will write about how Turkish people could not tolerate a
liberal journalist of Armenian origin. Can there be any greater harm
to our country? Shame on them. Hrant Dink will continue to live in
our hearts.

CENGIZ CANDAR IN REFERANS

The people running this country should emerge from this affair by
paying a big price and by making not so much the trigger man but
those behind him pay the price. Whatever happens this fact is not
going to change: Turkey without Hrant has become an orphan. Hrant
Dink was murdered. Turkey was shot.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Jan 20 2007

For Hrant

by YAVUZ BAYDAR News

My grief is very, very deep. I have lost a wonderful friend and a
courageous colleague.
Could we see it coming?
I remember an evening, months ago, in a restaurant. The infamous
Pamuk trial had ended in tumult, with Orhan Pamuk leaving the Þiþli
Courthouse followed by an angry mob.
That evening we were all together in a display of solidarity for
Pamuk, authors, intellectuals, artists and journalists.
One moment we were by ourselves: Orhan, Hrant and I.
Deeply worried, I told Orhan that he really should watch himself. `In
Turkey, we have a dark record of mistreating intellectuals,’ I said.
`Just remember Sabahattin Ali, Uður Mumcu, Ahmet Taner Kýþlalý, Musa
Anter, Çetin Emeç, Ýpekçi… Be careful.’
Orhan was affected: he seemed to share my concern. But Hrant swiftly
retorted `We shouldn’t worry, they wouldn’t dare’. And when Orhan
moved away from us, he whispered in my ear: `Whatever happens,
happens. I know where we live.’
He had a great heart, Hrant. He never concealed his emotions, even in
the most heated debates. I remember cautioning him on this. But at
the same time, those who know Hrant will tell you how much he loved
to tell the truth, how he loved to be bold and how much he loved his
native Turkey and his brothers in Armenia. Because he sought
reconciliation through truth, he was hated by hardliners both sides.
He was a target.
I may have lost a friend, but we all know the process of tolerance,
peace and understanding has lost one of its staunchest defenders. His
dream was a Turkey at peace with its past, and a Turkey with free
speech.
May his great soul rest in peace.

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